Buzz grows about the ‘Bee’
Published 5:39 pm Saturday, March 26, 2016
Promoting the Suffolk Education Foundation’s upcoming Grown-Up Spelling Bee are, standing from left, Lynn Johnson, SEF secretary; Ray Batton, SEF vice president; Jennifer Schmack, SEF president; and seated, Renyatta Banks, SEF executive director.
The buzz is growing louder as the first Grown-Up Spelling Bee hosted by the Suffolk Education Foundation is only seven weeks away.
The foundation is seeking sponsors and teams to sign on to participate.
“We’re still looking for sponsors,” said Bethanne Bradshaw, a member of the board of directors of the Suffolk Education Foundation. “We purposely kept the dollar amounts affordable. We have a lot of smaller businesses who could perhaps participate and support the foundation through this fun event.”
The Suffolk News-Herald has signed up as the Queen Bee sponsor, and RRMM Architects & Partners is the Beekeeper sponsor.
The cost to sponsor a team of teachers is only $250, and businesses can sponsor a word or a letter for an even more affordable price.
Three teams are registered so far, Bradshaw said, but “there’s lots of buzz from other companies and schools who want to ‘bee’ part of the action.”
The event is designed to be fun, not like the nerve-wracking spelling bees some might remember from their youth or see on television every year.
“It’s not like the nervous 12-year-olds that you see on the stage,” Bradshaw said. “We want it to be really fun.”
Three-person teams will get the chance to confer on the spellings of words. They can also pay to pass over a word, get a second chance or sting an opponent with a difficult word.
That said, the words aren’t going to be too difficult, Bradshaw said.
“It’s not high-pressure,” she said. “We’re not giving them the words that have all X’s and Y’s and are only used by doctors and botanists.”
The fun won’t all be in the spelling, Bradshaw added.
“We’re encouraging silly team names and buzz-worthy costumes,” Bradshaw said. Examples might include WordNerds, Old Men and the Bee, Highway to Spell and Bee-Dazzled.
“There’s a million bees and buzzes and ways that you can have fun with it,” she said.
The organization aims to get 10 school teams and 10 non-school teams, from local businesses or other organizations.
“I think it will be fun,” Bradshaw said. “We certainly want everybody to get excited about it.”
Deadlines are coming up for sponsorships and team sign-ups, so don’t wait around and “bee” disappointed.
Visit www.suffolkeducationfoundation.org for more information on the Grown-Up Spelling Bee.
